I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 163 Yang Tinghe's Request
Yang Tinghe has been paying close attention to the development of the Ming Royal Bank. He cannot help but pay attention. The Ming court is very short of money now, or it has always been short of money, it’s just a matter of how much money is short each year.

The court's annual expenses were increasing, but the taxes collected were slowly decreasing, which resulted in the Ming Dynasty's fiscal deficit every year. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty did not have any financial means at the moment. It could neither issue national debt nor over-issue currency, so it could only spend as much as it collected each year.

What to do when there is no money? The only thing to do is to delay payment. This year, I delay payment of military wages here, and tomorrow, I delay payment of wages to the clan leaders over there. There is no telling when this delay will end, and many people simply delay payment until the end and never make it up.

As the chief minister of the cabinet, Yang Tinghe spent a lot of time thinking about the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty every year. He also took various measures, such as abolishing bad policies, canceling militia training, reorganizing border troops, repatriating palace maids and musicians, releasing innocent prisoners, and cutting redundant soldiers and staff. However, these measures had little effect, because they were only treating the symptoms and not the root cause. He never thought about solving the problem fundamentally, but just wanted to make things confusing.

It's not that he doesn't know where the root of the problem lies, but when he thinks about the resistance he will face in solving the problem from the root, he can only retreat. Even if he is the prime minister of the cabinet, as long as he tries to solve the problem from the root, he will instantly be abandoned by his friends and relatives and become a de facto loner, and no officials will seriously implement the decrees he issued.

He also thought about raising taxes, but the civil unrest had just been quelled and the North still needed to recuperate. Most importantly, he did not want to bear the blame for this.

This is also the reason why he remained silent about Zhu Houxuan's return to the capital again. He has always looked up to Zhu Houxuan. Needless to say, the reason is obvious. After Zhu Houxuan returned to Qizhou, he was also very concerned about Zhu Houxuan's actions in Qizhou and was relatively clear about Zhu Houxuan's actions.

He still had a very strange impression of Zhu Houxuan. Although he spent a lot of money, he was an expert in open source, but he had never found any good way to do open source.

He had no idea about the Ming Royal Bank at first, but after looking at the memorials on the table, his mind began to become active.
What these memorials were talking about was actually very simple - they wanted money, but he couldn't produce any!

Although he could not make money, he knew who could make money. Although the Ming Royal Bank now had only more than 6 million taels of deposits, what went in was silver and what came out was silver coins. This in and out meant a profit of 1.5 million taels of silver, and these 1.5 million taels of silver could be used to mint 4 million silver coins. The speed at which money made money was truly astonishing.

By this calculation, the Ming Royal Bank actually controls wealth equivalent to tens of millions of taels of silver, which forms a stark contrast to the empty Taicang.

So Yang Tinghe started to think about the Ming Royal Bank. You see, this bank is under the banner of Ming and the name of the royal family. He worked so hard to deal with memorials and maintain the country, isn't it for Ming and the royal family? So he thought that he and the Ming Royal Bank were on the same front, and the Ming Royal Bank should help the court.
Of course, he did not want to take over the Ming Royal Bank. Not to mention whether he could take it over, even if he could, he knew that he could not manage the Ming Royal Bank. The lesson of the Ming Welfare Lottery was still there.

He couldn't help but share his idea with the cabinet ministers, and they all agreed with it. After all, they had done many things before to get the emperor to open up more treasury funds, so they had no psychological pressure at all about getting money from the Ming Royal Bank. Instead, they felt very familiar with it.

They first went to find Zhu Houzhao, but Zhu Houzhao simply stated that he and Zhu Houxuan had already made three rules that they would not interfere in the affairs of the Ming Royal Bank for three years, and asked them to go directly to Zhu Houxuan if they had any questions.

So Yang Tinghe and Liang Chu sent people to Nangong to deliver their business cards, saying that they had important matters to discuss. This matter had already been approved by Emperor Zhengde in advance, so it could not be considered as private contact with the vassal kings.

The reason why not all four grand secretaries came was because Yang Tinghe thought that if all four grand secretaries came, it would be a bit of a coercion, so just him, the prime minister, and Liang Chu would be enough, because Liang Chu and Zhu Houxuan were relatively familiar with each other.

After receiving the invitation, Zhu Houxuan came with pleasure. After a round of greetings, the three of them gradually got to the point.

"You want to take some money from the Royal Bank to supplement national expenditure?" Zhu Houxuan looked at the two university secretaries with surprise.

"That's right. State affairs are difficult. Your Highness the Prince of Jing helps His Majesty control the royal industry, and we govern the world for His Majesty. We all serve His Majesty, so naturally we have to help each other." Yang Tinghe said with a smile.

What a good way to help each other, what a good way to replace the concept! Zhu Houxuan sneered in his heart.

These bureaucrats learn really fast. Their bank has not yet obtained full rights to mint coins and has not become the real central bank of the Ming Dynasty. However, these bureaucrats have already learned how to get money from the central bank without any instruction. Their methods are exactly the same as those used by later politicians when faced with a financial crisis.

Zhu Houxuan thought to himself that since he dared to come, he must have been well prepared. He had long expected that the two grand secretaries would have such a request. After all, no one could ignore the large amount of silver held by the Ming Royal Bank.

"I wonder how much silver the two ministers want?" Zhu Houxuan asked calmly.

"One million taels of silver will be enough," Liang Chu said quickly.

"Hiss——" Zhu Houxuan took a breath of cold air in a somewhat artificial manner, "The two ministers are so arrogant, they actually want to take so much silver at once?"

"Alas, national affairs are difficult!" Yang Tinghe said slowly.

Zhu Houxuan's expression became embarrassed. "Although the Royal Bank controls millions of taels of silver, they all belong to depositors. They don't have much money themselves, and there is also a 20% interest every year. If the one million taels of silver are taken away, then this bank will not be able to operate."

Zhu Houxuan knew that these two people said this because they were eyeing the profits from his coin minting, but Zhu Houxuan would definitely not give up the profits from coin minting so easily.

After hearing what Zhu Houxuan said, the two university scholars looked unhappy.
"But since the two ministers have asked, I cannot but give you face. How about this? You can borrow 100 million taels of silver from the Royal Bank in the name of the court, with an annual interest rate of %. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)